Homer set to dirt music

May 1 2003By Chris Beck

Timothy Phillips will be hitting the terracotta for the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival. In the middle of his performance with flautist Mardi McSullea, the percussionist will recite ancient Greek poetry and accompany himself on flowerpots. The piece, To the Earth, was written in 1985 by Frederic Rzewski, an American composer who lives in Belgium.

"Rzewski has taken an English translation of a poem by Homer and organised it into rhythmic phrases," Phillips says, "I learnt the piece a few years ago and I like the simplicity of it. It is a beautiful combination of the voice and flowerpots. He suggested using knitting needles, but I thought that thin bamboo sticks worked well.

"Percussion is such a huge collection of instruments: timpani, drums, congas, bongos, vibraphones, xylophones, sometimes all at the same time," he says "You are playing anything that can be hit, basically."

Phillips performs with the Melbourne Symphony, Astra Chamber Music, Australian Art Orchestra and independent productions. He plays works by Stephen Schneider, Paul Doornbusch and Daniel Smutny. "The sort of music I play works better in a live context, so I don't go home and stick on a piece of solo, contemporary percussion to relax."

Phillips, 35, won a German Government scholarship in 1992 and spent a troubled year with the famous percussion teacher, Siegfried Fink.");document.write("

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"He was very conservative and he was an influential teacher in the 1960s and '70s, but he sort of stopped there. That was my impression," Phillips says. "Percussion can grow in terms of the repertoire you are prepared to approach and the assimilation techniques and ideas from around the world. He had his way of teaching and that was the only way."

Phillips transferred to another German university and teacher and stayed in the country for more than seven years. He was a founding member of the German based ensembles Est!Est!!Est!!! and Klammer 4. "It has been inspiring to work with some amazing conductors in Germany. They bring years of experience working with amazing musicians and composers. They can just impart so much knowledge - sound, concepts."

Phillips, who speaks fluent German, has spent the past few years commuting between Australia and Germany. "I'm not sure where I want to be," he says, "I've got a lot of friends in the music world in Germany and I did some fantastic things there.

"I was lucky enough to be involved in ensembles that toured around central Europe. I sometimes wonder that, because the scene in Australia is so much smaller and there are more musicians than there is work to go around, that it is a bit of a closed shop at times. But I've done some fantastic things here, too."

For any musician, it is tempting to be in a place that culturally endorses your visions and passions. Classical music has a different societal position in Germany.

"Towns of the size of Geelong or Ballarat have their own opera theatre and full-time orchestra," says Phillips.

Timothy Phillips plays in Scenes and Epigrams with The Astra Choir at North Melbourne Town Hall, 8.15pm on Saturday, and with Mardi McSullea at Ormond College Chapel, Parkville at 1pm and 3.30pm on May 10.